Posted by:
OP
(
)
Date: May 22, 2015 04:44PM
than with their patients.
Doctors are trained to notice nuances of whatever ailment they are looking for, right? A flick of an eye can indicate that the patient is veering off the truth, for example. And yet, how likely is the doctor to see this when he has his eyes on the keyboard?
This is disconcerting, when you are accustomed to having the doctor's attention. But given a choice, I would rather have the doctor fumbling with the keyboard than having to put up with a third party in the exam room. Still, especially in therapy settings, I view this as a lose/lose situation. Non-verbal cues are very important in that setting, and a practitioner with his eyes glued to his computer screen is doing his patient a HUGE disservice.
Very early in my adult work life, I, too, did work as a medical transcriptionist. But we just got the recorded report. We never, EVER, presumed to join the doctor and the patient.
Thank you again, everyone, for the feelings of validation. I felt violated and angry, that without so much as a by-your-leave, here was this woman I didn't know, sitting in on what was supposed to be a PRIVATE conversation.
In situations like this, I have learned to become ICY-angry, rather than OUT-OF-CONTROL angry. That way, it still looks like you are totally in control of yourself and they can't accuse you later of having gone off-the-wall, bat$hit crazy. Quite the opposite - you are calm, composed, articulate, and COLD. "They" (whoever), can't use that behavior against you later. Some of us had to learn stuff like that the hard way.
It's actually a double-violation, when they do that.